​Grateful Bread's maple-cured slab bacon is a thing of wonder. It's a lot like the meaty Hungarian and Polish slab bacon I buy at Phoenicia and the Russian General Store, only fresher and without the preseveratives. I like to slice it extra thick, cook it slowly and leave it a little chewy. This is bacon that takes a little work with the knife and fork.

By now the story of bacon-maker and Farmer's Market rock star Al Marcus has become well-known. As Mike Morris has reported, Al's son Matt, a CIA-trained chef, started the business to make challah bread while Three Brothers was out of business after Ike. Father Al came along to sell his homemade bacon and sausage.

​Kim chee cucumbers, Korean seaweed salad with sesame oil, and crunchy kim chee radishes are three of my favorite banchan items. Banchan are those little plates of food you get at a Korean restaurant. All three items are available in the extensive banchan refrigerator case at the deluxe Korean supermarket called Super H Mart at 1302 Blalock.

​Cut-up melons, mangos, cucumbers and coconuts were among the fruit cups on sale at the Sunny fruit stand on Saturday morning. The lady behind the counter was also selling hot elote (sweet corn) on a stick or in a bowl, along with chile powder-covered mangos on a stick and half coconuts. I had a bowl of elote mixed with sour cream, parmesan and chile powder. The strawberries on a stick covered with strawberry-flavored sour cream were quite nice too.

​It was a cold morning at the Bayou City Farmer's Market (the parking lot behind 3000 Richmond at Eastside). It wasn't as hopping as it's been in the past, with shoppers or vendors, but this was good for selfish reasons - the stalls were still full when we rolled in at about 9:30 a.m. There were satsumas, grapefruits and oranges, along with a variety of greens, green onions and tomatoes, in addition to the usual mushrooms, prepared foods, cheeses, soaps, crafts and meat.

We made it a point to stop by the crepe stand, Cafe Du Crepe, a recent addition here. It was a cold morning, and the prospect of hot food was really tempting. We've had these crepes before, once at a market at the UH campus (a veggie crepe that was all right, but cold by the time we got to it), and once at Bayou City (a tasty crepe with smoked salmon, greens and onions).

​We have been going to the Houston Farmers Market in Rice University on University Blvd. and Greenbriar almost every weekend since it started. Besides the best cup of coffee Houston has to offer, some amazing Indian food and organic fruits and vegetables, you can order some really fresh and flavorful pork product from Allen at Harrison Hog Farms. We can't get enough of his fresh pork sausage.

Last week, we pre-ordered a whole pork belly and a fresh ham. We have some pics of the belly. Normally, when you buy pork belly, it just looks like a raw piece of whole slab bacon. When we told Allen we wanted the whole belly, he told the guys who process his hogs to keep the belly whole -- and that is exactly what they did. Nipples and all. It looked so sexy, we almost don't want to cook it. After a little foreplay with the slab of pork belly, we will start to cure it with sugar, salt and some spices and let you know how it turns out.

​I grabbed some fresh purple kohlrabi at the Last Organic Outpost community garden last Saturday. There's lots of kohlrabi in the farmer's markets this time of year. It's a cold-weather vegetable that's related to cabbage and much beloved by Eastern Europeans (my people). Kalarabeleves is the name of a traditional Hungarian chicken and kohlrabi soup that you might want to try to make with your kohlrabi. There's also an elegant cream of kohlrabi soup that's occasionally found in fancy restaurants.

I mixed a little grated kohlrabi with grated watermelon radish and mayonnaise to a make a one-serving salad, it was pretty damn good. But there are lots more interesting recipes out there. Kohlrabi, cabbage-and-apple slaw, sounds like a good combination. And I like the idea of mixing kohlrabi, daikon and carrots with a wasabi dressing for a Japanese spin.

What's Monica Pope doing with her kohlrabi?

​Mexican hawthorn is the English name of the fruit called tejocote in Mexico. I had never seen them before I ran across a bunch in the stalls behind Canino's. When I picked one up and tried to eat it, the owner of the produce stall looked horrified. You don't eat them raw, she told me, you use them to make punch.

Ryan Pera treasures his Saturdays, though he never sits down and the days tend to top 12 hours.

Saturdays are farmers' market days, when The Grove Restaurant's executive chef picks the produce he'll use in that evening's specials and, more important, finds a few hours not to answer phone calls but to cook.

"My challenge is to use what's available to me," Pera says of going to market. "I try not to corner myself."

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The organic produce at those Saturday farmers' markets is swell. All those ugly carrots and bug-bitten greens fill us with the smug satisfaction of knowing we are eating locally, even if nobody else on our block gives a fig. But wouldn't it be nice if we could feel superior without having to pay so damn much? Might be nice to shop in the middle of the week once in a while too.

While I was at Canino's yesterday, I bought a sack of seedless, easy-peeling satusmas. They were wonderfully sweet too. The sign said they came from Froberg Farms in Alvin. Turns out lots of other produce comes from Froberg Vegetable & Fruit Farm too. The farm sends a truck up the Farmer's Marketing Association on Airline every day.

Etsy, the online marketplace where the artsy-crafty types among us can sell their handcrafted and homemade gifts to the world, is good for gifts other than just jewelry or throw pillows. Their "edible" section is stocked full of yummy goodies -- and now includes baked goods, too.

So don't fret if you don't have the time or talent to make something yourself for the holidays. Just let the Martha Stewart brigade at Etsy come up with clever gifts and stocking stuffers -- like our some of our favorites below -- while you look like a hero this Christmas.

​We absolutely adore these delicate and delightful French macarons from Little Oven, a baker based in New York, which come in caramel, mint and dark chocolate. The gift wrapping is beautiful, as is the fact that Little Oven donates $1 of every purchase to charity.